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Art & Commerce: Scenes From the Armory Show 2018

NEW YORK CITY WAS FLUSH with art fairs over the weekend and The Armory Show was the central attraction. Solo exhibitions featuring Sanford Biggers at David Castillo Gallery, Emma Amos at Ryan Lee Gallery, and Simphiwe Ndzube at Nicodim Gallery were among the more compelling sights. Staged March 8-11 at Piers 91 & 92, the annual mega-fair featured 198 galleries from 31 countries, including 66 new exhibitors.

Naomi Beckwith, a curator at MCA Chicago, chaired the inaugural Curatorial Leadership Summit convening more than 75 fellow curators, including Zoe Whitley of the Tate Modern, Helen Molesworth of MOCA Los Angeles, and Lauren Haynes of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Featuring works by artists Igshaan Adams and Cinga Samson, Blank Projects of Cape Town won the Presents Booth Prize, which was juried by Beckwith and collector Pamela Joyner, among others.

The following highlights feature notable works on view at booths around The Armory Show and select sales news culled from coverage published by a variety of media outlets based on self-reporting from galleries. Next year, The Armory Show is March 7-10, 2019.

Jeffrey Deitch, NY: “So Close” (2018), a monumental installation by French artist JR greeted visitors at the entrance to The Armory Show. Part of the Platform section of the fair, curated by Jen Mergel, the work features images of Syrians, refugees JR met at Zaatari camp, on the Syria-Jordan border. | Courtesy The Armory Show

READ MORE about JR’s project on Artsy. He says: “The real process of my work is to actually connect people. I wish I could bring these people here physically, but they cannot travel—they’re stuck in a camp, they can’t enter Jordan and yet can’t go back to Syria. So I’m bringing their images, and I’m bringing a discussion.”

Mixed-media paintings by Derek Fordjour at Josh Lilley Gallery sold for $10,000 to 25,000 each. Memphis-born Fordjour’s parents are of Ghanaian heritage. A graduate of Morehouse College, he has a master’s in art education from Harvard University and earned an MFA in painting at Hunter College.

David Castillo Gallery, Miami Beach, Fla.: Installation view of solo exhibition of works by SANFORD BIGGERS at Armory Show 2018. From left, with “Ghettobird Tunic” at center. | via David Castillo on Instagram

At David Castillo Gallery, “Free Radical,” a mixed-media sculpture by Sanford Biggers sold to New York collectors Carole Server and Oliver Frankel ($40,000), and “Annunciation,” quilt painting by Biggers was purchased by a major Washington, D.C.-based collection for $50,000.

The Presents section of The Armory Show features new galleries less than 10 years old. Awarded for the most compelling and innovative exhibition presentation, the Booth Prize includes $10,000. The prize went to Blank Projects of Cape Town, which exhibited works by Cape Town-born artists Igshaan Adams and Cinga Samson. Jurors Naomi Beckwith, curator at MCA Chicago; collector Glenn Fuhrman, founder of FLAG Art Foundation; collector Marguerite Hoffman; and collector and philanthropist Pamela Joyner, selected the winning gallery.

Jack Shainman Gallery sold the two-panel painting by Meleko Mokgosi. The asking price was $85,000. His large-scale paintings place figures in engaging scenes and juxtapositions that explore “notions of colonialism, democracy, and liberation across African history.” Born in Botwana, he lives and works in New York. His solo exhibition, “Meleko Mokgosi: Bread, Butter, and Power,” is currently on view at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, where he earned his MFA.

Two paintings by Emma Amos were sold at Ryan Lee Gallery for $60,000 to 90,000 each. Amos was the youngest and only female member of Spiral, the short-lived artist collective co-founded in 1963 by Romare Bearden, Charles Alston, Norman Lewis, and Hale Woodruff.

A painting by Stanley Whitney sold for $60,000 at Lisson Gallery. At Jack Shainman Gallery, a collage by Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017), part of a recently discovered series that is a departure from the portraits for which he is known, sold for $45,000. CT

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Do you enjoy and value Culture Type? Please consider supporting its ongoing production by making a donation. Culture Type is an editorially independent solo project that requires countless hours and expense to research, report, write, and produce. To help sustain it, make a one-time donation or sign up for a recurring monthly contribution. It only takes a minute. Many Thanks for your support.

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